A Toolkit of Parenting Insights and Techniques Can Be a Source of Immediate Assistance
Individuals and couples seek mental health treatment for a variety of reasons, but oftentimes the practitioner finds that parenting issues are complicit in some, if not many, of the client's struggles. On such occasions, providing evidence-supported parenting advice may be preferable to an immediate referral to a parenting class.

This webinar provides the practitioner with a valuable toolkit of parenting behavior practices that can be easily presented and taught as an adjunct to other treatment priorities. The webinar draws heavily from the Parent Management Training literature and addresses both child and adolescent concerns. Numerous useful insights are covered, including how to determine the function of child problem behavior, how to explain to clients the correct use and procedure for time-out, and how to use "grounding" most effectively with adolescents.

Course Content

A. The Difference Between Parenting Knowledge and Parenting Skill
  1. Definitions
  2. Parenting Information Programs
  3. Parenting Management Training (PMT)
B. Research Foundation Behind PMT
  1. Work of Alan Kazdin
  2. Work of Gerald Patterson
C. Application of Critical Behavioral Principles to Parenting Techniques
  1. Operant and respondent conditioning
  2. Social learning theory
D. Insights and Techniques to Share With Clients Who Have Young Children
  1. Problem behavior is functional
    a. Purpose of misbehavior
    b. The “pay-off” of misbehavior
  2. Attending to desirable behavior
    a. Reinforcing the desired behavior
    b. De-emphasize the punishing of misbehavior
  3. Practicing desirable behavior
    a. Teach precisely
    b. “Positive opposite” of problem behavior
  4. Using a point system
  5. Using time-out effectively
    a. Frequently employed incorrectly
    b. Appropriate vs. inappropriate uses
    c. Having a “nuclear option” available
E. Insights and Techniques to Share with Clients Who Have Teenagers
  1. Setting and enforcing limits
    a. Negotiable vs. non-negotiable
    b. When to alter limits
    c. Knowing legal responsibility and potential culpability
  2. Discussing rather than lecturing
  3. Providing choices when possible
  4. Understanding “grounding” as response-cost mild punishment
  5. Picking your battles
    a. How important is the problem behavior?
    b. The necessity of the benign “rebellion”
F. Case Examples